XP won't start

Hello,
I am running XP prof. on startup its gets to the XP logo which displays very briefly then the machine reboots, in safe mode it displays a screen or so of drivers then reboots , selecting last good config. it runs for a bit longer then goes to a blank screen and stops. When I initially installed XP I installed the Windows Recovery Console, attempting to start this results in the message "Setup cannot load keyboard layout file kbdus.dll" it then says to shut down the computer. I ran the Windows setup program from the CD hoping to get to the bit where you can try to repair the installation (the screen after the agreement acceptance) however this option does not appear on the computer it only offers "Setting up Windows on the selected item" Create a partition or delete a partition. Any help appreciated.
Regards John Ely Australia.

 

Sounds like you have one of those OEM versions of Windows that do not have the repair install option. Pity, but you have done well to get through all the troubleshooting proceedures in the correct order.

Your options now are

1) Borrow a friends full XP CD to effect a repair install, but input your license. when prompted.

2) Save your data and perform a full clean install.

You might be able to connect your hard drive as slave to another system and copy off the data. Also copy off any drivers folders as you will need these again.

Let us know how you get on


Studio T

 

Hi,
Thanks for your reply, I have purchased and installed a new hard drive ,it works OK, I would now like to try and recover data from the old drive as you suggested , they are SATA drives, I connected the old drive , the computer recognises that it is there but does not assign a drive letter to it , how do access it ?
Regards John Ely.

 

Im all at sea here or perhaps the communion wine was stronger than I thought. Is this a new question or what is the connection?

Studio T

 

Hi Studio T,
Sorry about the lack of clarity in my last response. It is part of the same problem ,( but it is a new question) I am trying to recover data from off the non starting system.
Re. your suggestion that my XP CD may not have the repair option.
I have two computers here both running XP installed from the same CD the good working machine will display the option to repair after the license agreement screen , the faulty machine does not, however I think that this may be because I opted to install the recovery console when I installed XP on the now faulty computer.
I want to follow your suggestion to connect the hard drive as a second drive in a working system and try and recover data , however my good computer has an IDE drive the faulty computer has a SATA drive so I have purchased a new SATA drive and have installed XP on it ,it works OK. , XP recognises that the old drive is there but does not assign a drive letter to it ,
( is this because both drives are bootable) how do I access it ?
Regards John.

 

Does Windows declare the drive healthy?
Have you tried to change the drive letter, windows sometimes hides a drive by 'doubling up' or overlapping the ranges.
In disk management
right click the drive and choose change drive letter and paths
select whqtever is shown in the box
put a dot in the radio button 'asign the following drive lettter'
Select a letter clear of all existing, eg M or P
Click OK
click YES
restart the pc

It's also possible that your comment about set active applies. I've not yet had a SATA drive to copy off this way, only PATA and they have the master / slave arrangement.

 

Windows declares the drive (disk 1 ) to be healthy, online and active ,right clicking it only gives two options, help or delete the partition, the rest are greyed out , XP must recognise it as a system disk . Microsoft article 307844 "How to change drive letter assignments in Windows XP" states "Changing the drive letter of the system volume or boot volume is not a built in feature of the Disk Management snap-in."
Thank you for your help , I shall ponder it further, there must be some way to get at the stuff on the drive.
Regards John.

 

I would use Partition magic / Drive image at this stage. Perhaps one of the MG disk utilities will read the drive or alter its setting?

Studio T